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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



MOSES BIGELOW, 



WRITTEN BY REQUEST OF THE NEWARK 
COMMON COUNCIL, 



BY HIS SON 



SAMUEL F. BIGELOW, A. M. 



NEWARK, N. J. 
I89O. 



O.TYl. 

<2"YY0D. 



BIOGRHPHICSL SKETCH 

OF 

MOSES BIGELOW. 



M 



CHAPTER 1. 

BIRTH, ANCESTRY, YOUTH AND MARRIAGE. 

OSES BIGELOW, the twelfth Mayor of the 
City of Newark, was born at Lyons Farms, 
Essex County, New Jersey, on January 12, 1800. He 
was a son of Timothy Bigelow and Hannah Ogden 
Meeker Bigelow. His great grandfather, John Big- 
elow, a grandson of John Bigelow of Watertown, 
Massachusetts, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, 
in the year 1667, and after marrying Abigail Rich- 
ards of Glastonbury, Connecticut, January n, 17 10, 
moved to New Jersey in 1714. His grandfather, 
John Bigelow, and his father, Timothy Bigelow, 
were natives of Hanover Township, Morris, former- 
ly Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His ancestors 
both in New England and New Jersey, were people 
of means, and his grandfather made investments in 



lands and mines in Morris County. They were also 
interested in public affairs and held various local 
offices. 

His father, and his uncle Aaron Bigelow, were 
soldiers in the war of the Revolution. The former 
a boy, served in the ranks ; the latter obtained dis- 
tinction as a lieutenant and as a captain. His 
mother was also exposed to the dangers and vicissi- 
tudes of that conflict, living during the war, the 
period of her childhood, in her grandfather's house 
near the " Stone School House " at Lyons Farms, a 
region subject to frequent hostile incursions by the 
Hessians of the British Army. 

Mr. Bigelow married February 4th, 1836, Julia 
Ann Breckenridge Fowler, daughter of Dr. Samuel 
Fowler of Sussex County, the learned mineralogist 
and member of Congress from New Jersey during 
President Jackson's administration, and grand- 
daughter of Colonel Mark Thomson, an officer of 
the war of the Revolution, a deputy of the Provin- 
cial Congress, and a member of Congress from New 
Jersey during President Washington's administra- 
tion. 

Mr. Bigelow's boyhood was spent at home He 
attended school at Lyons Farms and Elizabeth, was 
studious and thoughtful, and when of age, had read 



all the standard books at hand and excelled in many 
branches of knowledge, particularly in mathematics. 
He thought of becoming a lawyer, and was en- 
tered as a student in the office of Governor William 
Sandford Pennington, and when diverted to other 
pursuits continued to have a leaning towards legal 
studies, which he afterwards pursued in a desultory 
way. He later manifested his interest in literary 
matters by joining several literary societies. He 
also became a member of the Franklin Literary 
Association, the Newark Library Association and 
the New Jersey Historical Society. He retained 
through life studious habits and his evenings were 
usually spent with his family and his books. 



CHAPTER II. 



EARLY NEWARK AND BUSINESS. 

NEWARK from its birth was a town of manufac- 
turers. Most of the settlers from Connecticut 
had learned useful handicrafts that they practised 
at times and taught their sons. To be a carpenter, 
a shoemaker, a wagonmaker, a blacksmith, a miller, 
a distiller, was better than to be a drudge on a farm, 
to care for cattle and to clear fence and cultivate 
new lands. Thus it was mechanics multiplied, and 
being skillful and industrious, and having easy com- 
munication by water with other towns, their fame 
spread rapidly, and Newark's reputation as an enter- 
prising manufacturing town was established before 
the revolution. In 1806 a writer represented it to 
be " one of the most flourishing towns in the United 
States, noted for its fine Cider, Carriages, Coach-lace 
and Quarries.'' He also said : "At least one-third of 
the population, both in the town and the adjoining 
country, are employed in making shoes." In 1830 
there were eighteen shoe factories in the town with 
a capital of $300,000, employing 1075 hands. 



In 1821, when Mr. Bigelow settled in Newark, 
it was a busy place of 7000 inhabitants, employed 
principally in making shoes, hats and carriages, for 
sale in the southern States. 

Mr. Bigelow became a manufacturer of shoes 
for the southern market and was largely engaged in 
that industry until 1830. In the previous year his 
only brother David, a young man of great promise 
and much esteemed in Newark, five years his junior 
and only twenty-four years of age, died in Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, where he had opened a warehouse for 
the sale of the goods manufactured in Newark, 
Mr. Bigelow's business plans were disarranged by 
the death of his brother, upon whom he was depen- 
dent for business assistance, and soon afterwards 
he withdrew from shoe manufacturing. Cincinnati, 
at the time referred to, was one of the country's 
frontier cities ; the facilities for intercourse between 
the east and west were few and rude and the risk 
great ; and the opening of a warehouse in that city 
at so early a date, and in his youth, is ilustrative of 
enterprise characteristic of Mr. Bigelow, 

His next venture was with Pruden Ailing in the 
wholesale grocery trade in 1831, when he organized 
the firm of Bigelow & Ailing, which carried on busi- 
ness on the north east corner of Broad and Market 



Streets, contemporaneously with John H. Stephens 
and Joel W. Condit. The grocery business was an 
important industry of the town at that time ; trans- 
portation to and from New York was difficult and 
expensive, and country merchants from Essex, 
Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Hunterdon Counties 
bought their goods in Newark. Incident to the 
trade was the sale in bulk of imported and other 
liquors. Mr. Bigelow was always a temperate man 
in all things but never a teetotaler or prohibitionist 
in the use of intoxicating drinks. Believing that all 
reforms in politics, morals and religion, must proceed 
from the people as results of education, and could 
never be effects of legislation, he gave little heed to 
the visionary schemes of those well-meaning people 
who seek to prevent the use of liquors by legislative 
enactments, unsupported by popular sentiment. 

There have been temperance revivals from time 
immemorial, little ripples to be soon overwhelmed 
by contrary and opposing currents without making 
lasting impressions on the surface of affairs. One 
of these revivals occurred while the firm of Bigelow 
& Ailing was in existence. 

There were no clubs then, and their store house 
centrally located, was the meeting place of leading 
citizens. Pending the revival a committee was 

B 



10 

appointed to wait upon the wholesale grocers to re- 
quest them to discontinue the sale of liquors. Mr. 
Bigelow was of handsome person and of a gentle 
and retiring manner that attracted confidence. He 
received the committee graciously, listened to their 
request, and asked time for its consideration until 
the following Monday morning. He was always 
precise in pecuniary matters, and during the inter- 
vening time he estimated the loss on stock to the 
firm, if it complied with the committee's request. 
On Monday morning he informed the committee 
that the firm, appreciating their benevolent efforts, 
was willing to accede to their wishes if the commit- 
tee and their associates would suffer half the loss 
made neccessary by the abrupt closing of the 
business, and presented his estimate of the amount 
and extended to them the privilege of verifying it 
by the firm's books. It is needless to say the com- 
mittee declined the offer. And yet so keen was his 
sense of honor and of personal accountability for 
the manner of his intercourse with his fellows that 
he would not continue in an occupation not ap- 
proved by his conscience, and soon after withdrew 
from this profitable business. 



CHAPTER III. 



SOUTHERN BUSINESS AND THE FINANCIAL 
REVULSION OF 1837. 

THE greater part of Newark's leading men of 
the period from 1825 to 1845 were descendents 
of the first settlers. Born in a locality associated 
with many reminiscences of the revolution, nurtured 
by pious mothers, trained by austere fathers, devel- 
oped by exercises in the open air, with their forefa- 
thers' plain habits unchanged, and their natural 
impulses unrestrained by foreign associations, they 
were a public spirited, an honorable, a dignified, an 
intelligent, a self-reliant, enterprising, handsome 
body of men, who gave a tone to the town that 
lasted for many years. They identified their own 
and the town's interests, and were as careful of the 
town's reputation as of their own reputations, and 
even as late as i860, it was said that none of New- 
ark's public financial institutions had failed in its 



12 

obligations. Guided by this body of men the place 
made rapid progress. The manufactories were in- 
creased in number and extended in variety. 

Shoe manufacturing continued a leading indus- 
try, but other industries also advanced rapidly, and 
among them, that of making clothing for the south- 
ern market, in which 1591 men were employed in 

1835. 

In 1836 Mr. Bigelow organized the firm of 

Robinson, Bigelow & Co., which a year afterwards 
was changed to Bigelow, Canfield & Ingraham, to 
manufacture clothing to be sold at wholesale to 
southern dealers. In this industry were then en- 
gaged many of Newark's shrewdest and most intelli- 
gent business men, and while it gave employment 
to a larger number of mechanics than any other 
trade, it gave promise of rich rewards to capitalists. 
Although not familiar with the manufacturing 
branch of the business, Mr. Bigelow had a practical 
experience and a general knowledge of finances 
that well fitted him for the successful operation 
of an extensive manufactory He also comman- 
ded sufficient capital, and was fortunate in his 
associates. 

Prior to 1836 Shipman, Robinson & Co., had 
made a large sum in the same business, and by 



13 

arrangement, their customers were transferred to 
the new firm. It will be recalled that this was the 
year preceding that of the great financial revulsion 
that most severely affected Newark and extended 
over the whole country. 

In a letter to a friend dated February 5, 1844, 
Mr. Bigelow gives an interesting account of this 
business experience. In the first year the new firm 
manufactured $107,000 and sold $90,000 worth of 
clothing, of which $49,878 were never paid. In 
1840, when all the Mississippi banks failed, the firm 
paid from 30 to 58 per cent, discouut for collections 
in that State, and almost as much in other southern 
States. During its business career the firm's bad 
debts amounted to more than one third its gross 
sales. 

But other firms of equal standing suffered to a 
like extent from the country's disordered affairs, 
among them Andrew Rankin, Shipman & Co., 
Waldron, Thomas & Co., and Doremus, Suydam & 
Nixon, and numerous others of the highest repute 
for honor and sagacity, some of which fell never to 
rise again. Doctor John S. Darcy and John Ailing 
gave their personal endorsements to sustain the 
house of C. Ailing & Co., and James Vanderpool, 
father of a member of the firm, mortgaged his 



14 

property for 850,000 to the State Bank to further 
assist it. There was no business firm of repute in 
Newark that did not suspend payment in this 
unfortunate period. 

The disastrous result of his last venture seri- 
ously affected Mr. Bigelow, but his conduct was so 
manly, and his course of action so honorable in his 
troubles, that public respect for him which had 
always been great was much increased. 

The National Bankrupt Law gave relief from 
importunate creditors to many of his associates, but 
the solicitations of his friends were ineffectual to 
induce him to obtain peace in this way, and he paid 
his debts in full and ever afterwards had the high- 
est credit. 

The settlement of his disordered affairs re- 
quired that he should visit his southern debtors. 
The facilities of locomotion in the whole country 
were rude then as compared with the present time ; 
and, in the south especially, crude and uncomfort- 
able ; there were no steam cars ; stage coaches were 
few and rough ; steamboats on the great rivers, and 
saddle horses were the common conveyances. Mr. 
Bigelow traversed nearly all of the southern States, 
including Texas, on horseback, and although his 
experience was unpleasant in some respects, for, to 



*5 

his great discouragement, he saw how poor and en- 
tirely unable to meet their moneyed obligations the 
people were, it was very beneficial in other respects, 
as it gave him a knowledge of the people and their 
domestic institutions that was very valuable, and 
that could have been acquired in no other way. 
Notwithstanding his heavy losses in that section, 
he never felt unkindly to the people. 








&^mm 



CHAPTER IV. 



MOSES BIGELOW & CO. 



HIS marriage was contemporaneous with his 
engaging in clothing manufacturing, and he 
brought his young wife to a house on Park Place, 
adjoining the Park House, where he lived several 
years and his two oldest children were born. His 
wife had inherited an ample fortune from her grand- 
father, and at one time he contemplated removing 
with his family to one of her farms in Warren Coun- 
ty, but could not overcome his aversion to seeming 
to be dependent on her, and patiently awaited the 
subsidence of the financial storm that had wrecked 
the country before commencing anew his career. 

One effect of his reverses was to make him 
extremely cautious, and it was not until 1846 that 
he decided to again take the risks of tra'de. His 

business ability was recognized both in New York 
c 



and Newark, and several offers of copartnership in 
old mercantile houses of high standing in New York 
were declined by him. 

In 1846 he decided to engage in varnish manu- 
facturing. He felt that the trade was not suscept- 
ible of a development worthy of his energies and 
concluded to test its experiences for a year or two 
before joining his name to that of the firm of which 
he was a member. This test, while not altogether 
satisfactory, showed that, if the profits were not 
large, the risk was small, and in 1848 the firm of 
Bigelow and Price was created. Under his intelli- 
gent direction the business of this firm was exten- 
ded to all parts of the country, and the firm became 
known as one of the strongest and most honorable 
in the trade. Its business methods were enterpri- 
sing, intelligent, exact and reliable, and inspired 
confidence to such a degree that the firm's credit was 
always greater than its requirements. The profits 
annually increased and afterwards, under the title of 
Moses Bigelow & Co., the business yielded to Mr. 
Bigelow, until his death, a very large income, with 
which he generously maintained an expensive house- 
hold in his handsome residence, 1020 Broad Street. 



CHAPTER V. 



AN OFFICER OF CORPORATIONS. 

ONE of the wonders of this enterprising and 
changing country has been the multiplication 
of private and quasi public corporations. These 
corporations were so few and unimportant in their 
operations at the time of the creation of the Federal 
and State governments that they had slight con- 
sideration in framing the constitutions. It has been 
by legal fictions that the Federal Courts have ob- 
tained a complete and essential jurisdiction over 
them. Now that they may be organized under the 
general laws, they are so numerous and powerful 
as to fetter individual enterprise, and to divide with 
the legislatures the power of government. 

When charters were obtained by special laws, 
incorporators were generally the most reputable 
citizens. The officers of the old Newark corpora- 



20 

tions were naturally the representative men of the 
town, and without wishing to detract from the 
merits of their successors, I cannot forbear to say 
that in innate ability, honesty, and vigorous man- 
hood they excelled those to whom these dignities 
are now generally awarded. 

Mr. Bigelow always found time amid his busi- 
ness cares for attention to matters that concerned 
the general welfare. He shirked none of the re- 
sponsibilities of citizenship, and both in private and 
public matters cared for the general good. He was 
thus among the foremost in creating and maintaining 
substantial business institutions, and none of which 
he was an officer ever failed in its public obligations. 
He was energetic in promoting the construction of 
the Morristown, now the Morris & Essex Railroad, 
and in 1835, with J. P. Jackson and J. M. Meeker, 
a committee of citizens, successfully sought its in- 
corporation by the legislature. He also obtained 
the charter of the Mechanics' Fire & Marine Insur- 
ance Company, long a leading institution. He like- 
wise was an incorporator and a most active director 
of the Howard Savings Institution, and of the Fire- 
men's Insurance Company, and for some time the 
latter's President. He also was an incorporator and 
a director of the Republic Trust Company, the 



21 

Citizens' Gaslight Company, and other institutions 
not now recalled 

His conscientiousness was too great for him to 
hold a trust position, the duties of which he did 
not understand, and his intelligence sufficient for 
him to learn all the methods of the most intri- 
cate corporate business, so he always proved an 
active, valuable and influential member of every 
association with which he was connected, and the 
success which has attended many of these institu- 
tions is as much due to his good judgment, as to 
that of any other person. 

Benevolence was well developed in Mr. Bigelow, 
and he sought those positions wherein he could 
assuage pain He was an incorporator and first 
President of The New Jersey Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, and by appointment 
of the Supreme Court, served faithfully for many 
years without compensation, as a trustee of the 
Trenton Asylum for the Insane, and was constant 
in attending the meetings of the Board and making 
inspections of the Asylum. 



«»»- 



CHAPTER VI. 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 



AT no period in our county's history has politi- 
cal excitement been greater, and has party 
animosity been more bitter, than from the beginning 
of the century to 1845. The perennial questions 
about national banks, revenue tarriffs, internal im- 
provements, and the respective powers of the State 
and Federal governments were warmly, intelligently 
and exhaustively discussed. The Congressional re- 
ports of those days are political encyclopaedias for 
the politicians of these days, and in the comprehen- 
siveness of their arguments on these subjects verify 
to a certain extent the truth of the adage, "there 
is nothing new under the sun." Every man was 
then a politician, and every one, with superior intel- 
ligence, a student of political economy. 



2 4 

Developing into manhood during this period, 
Mr. Bigelow early formed opinions on these ques- 
tions that were never changed. 

Political lines in Essex County have been very 
closely drawn ever since the foundation of the gov- 
ernment. There are few sons that have left their 
fathers' party. Federalist families produced Whigs ; 
and they, the later Republicans. The earlier Re- 
publican families produced Democrats. There are 
a few exceptions to the rule, that serve to emphasize 
its significance. This continued family divergence 
in party associations is due in some degree to intel- 
lectual processes, but, in a greater degree, to senti- 
ment. The influential men in Essex County of the 
revolutionary era accepted the doctrines of Adams 
and Hamilton and were Federalists ; and their 
power transmitted was sufficient to keep the people 
in accord with the succeeding parties maintaining 
similar doctrines for many generations. It was not 
until 1856 that a Democrat was elected Mayor of 
Newark. 

Mr. Bigelow accepted the doctrines of Jefferson 
and was a Republican and a Democrat all his life. 
In his fidelity to these doctrines and these part- 
ies, he never wavered under the most trying 
conditions. 



25 

His intimate associates were of the opposite 
parties, and his business interests and political am- 
bitions would have been advanced by a change, but 
he never wavered even during the hot times of the 
war of the rebellion. In his younger days he 
co-operated in politics with the Van Arsdales, Elias 
and Jacob, Dr. John S. Darcy, Archer Gifford, 
Zephaniah Drake, Cornelius Dickinson, John H. 
Stephens, Henry S. Darcy, James Hewson, and 
James Thomson, and in his older days with William 
Wright, John C. Denman, Theodore Runyon, John 
McGregor, James Smith, Nathaniel C. Ball, Jerome 
B. Ward and Frederick H. Teese, who were local 
leaders of the democratic party, without seeking or 
desiring public office ; but frequently representing 
his party in local, state and national conventions. 

Mr. Bigelow was in some respects well equipped 
to be a successful politician. He had a fine presence, 
benevolent manner, great sincerity, superior intelli- 
gence and an unsullied reputation. He was also 
cautious, reticent, independent, truthful, dignified, 
firm, and ambitious. His disposition and conduct 
were uniform in the privacy of home life and the 
publicity of affairs. He had, however, a personal 
pride that withheld him from unseemly efforts to 
advance his fortunes. He also abhored bribery in 



26 

politics, and upon one occasion, spurned a guberna- 
torial nomination, to be obtained irregularly, and 
suffered a defeat in the state convention by a few- 
votes. His popular strength was not unappreciated 
by his associates, but he was never a candidate for, 
and never held any popular office but that of 
Mayor of Newark. 




CHAPTER VII. 



ELECTED MAYOR OF NEWARK. 



THE republican party was in its formative state 
in 1856, and divided into two factions, one of 
which nominated Theodore P. Howell, and the other 
Henry N. Parkhurst, for mayor. The democratic 
party nominated Mr. Bigelow, who was elected. 
He was the first democrat to be mayor of Newark, 
and took office in January 1857. He was elected 
several times until 1864, and then succeeded by ex- 
Chancellor Theodore Runyon, another democrat, 
who held office for one term, when a republican was 
again installed. 

Mr. Bigelow took office January 6, 1857. The 
city then had a population of 57,000, and a variety 
of manufacturing industries in successful operation, 
and promised to be what it has since become, a 
most important and populous manufacturing centre. 



28 

The imperfections in the government were under- 
stood, and the necessity of changing its village 
forms realized. An improved charter, prepared by 
the common council and citizens, was obtained the 
same year, and it was necessary for him to recom- 
mend and supervise such changes in the city ordi- 
nances as would promote homogeneity between them 
and the charter. 

To this work he devoted himself with a zeal 
and intelligence worthy of the highest praise. To 
facilitate taxation, he suggested the preparation of 
block maps of the city lots and streets, and re-num- 
bering the houses ; to extinguish the public debt, he 
procured the establishment of sinking funds, saying: 
" It is unwise to create a debt without making at 
the same time some provision for its extinguish- 
ment, and unjust to burthen posterity with the 
whole debt." To procure better water, he induced 
the purchase of the rights of an old private water 
company, and the formation of the Newark Aque- 
duct Board, saying: " For an element so indispen- 
sible as water we ought not to depend on the 
pecuniary interest of a private company." He 
advocated and procured a reorganization of the 
police department, established the office of auditor, 
and fixed its methods of business, organized a dis- 



2 9 

pensary of medicines for the poor and a board of 
health, and obtained a codification of the city ordi- 
nances. It would be a work of supererogation to 
continue the enumeration of his efforts to improve 
the business methods of the city, to maintain its 
financial standing and to promote the health and 
comfort of the citizens. These efforts were unceas- 
ing and effective and were estimated at their full 
value by his fellow citizens, who, without distinction 
of party, awarded him full praise for his faithfulness 
and intelligence. 

He was an aggressive mayor and exercised 
freely his right of veto, and in only one instance, 
when he opposed the purchase of the City Hotel, 
to be transformed into the present City Hall, was 
his veto disregarded. He exercised a careful super- 
vision of all the city offices, observed the deportment 
of the clerks, and made regular examinations of 
their books, frequently inspected public works in 
progress, and ascertained the profits of contractors, 
and gave the same care to the public as to his pri- 
vate business. 

The financial affairs of the city were his special 
charge during the war, and although the common 
council finance committee always co-operated with 
him, his methods were approved and his plans 



30 

adopted by them and all public loans were negotia- 
ted by him. In this time of general demoralization 
there were no embezzlements from the city treasury 
and no corrupt practices in the city business. 

It is not out of place to narrate an incident in 
his official life to which the genial Governor William 
Pennington was a party. 

The Mayor was very conscientious in the per- 
formance of his duties and never shirked any official 
responsibility. Believing it necessary to discipline 
an unfaithful subordinate, he was doubtful of his 
power, and casually consulted the Governor, inquir- 
ing whether the mayor had the necessary power. 
The Governor replied : " Certainly; certainly ; if the 
charter does not give you the power, the common 
law does ; the man should be punished." And he 
was punished despite the efforts of many politicians. 

In his annual message of January 1861 to the 
common council, he expressed the views on civil 
service reform now held by many statesmen. He 
then said : " One of the most important functions 
devolving on you is the appointment of the officers 
of the city government, who are by law under the 
general supervision of the mayor. Capable, faith- 
ful and experienced incumbents, who take pride in 
an intelligent and faithful discharge of duties, will 



3* 

lighten your labors and facilitate the transaction of 
public business. The object of the establishment 
of the several offices is the public good, which cer- 
tainly can be best promoted by retaining in the public 
service men of capacity, experience, and fidelity. 
Claims to public place based on other grounds than 
the public good ought not to be recognized. The 
experience acquired by a faithful and competent 
officer is of great value to the public, and, if the 
rule be established, that the tenure of place depends 
on a faithful discharge of duty, and on that alone, 
the motives to perform that duty are increased and 
strengthened and the temptations to engage in 
electioneering schemes and to connive at practices 
inconsistent with the public interests are greatly 
lessened. I respectfully submit these suggestions, 
believing that the policy indicated will conduce to 
the greatest good of the people and receive their 
approbation. 1 ' 

Before the end of his term the municipal ma- 
chinery was in good working order ; laws and 
ordinances necessary for the proper exercise of mun- 
icipal functions had been obtained, system in direct- 
ing the financial affairs established, and capable 
officers selected for the several departments. Be 
sides, the moral tone of the municipality had been 



32 

raised. Upon his induction to office the Mayor 
said to the Common Council : " The reputation of 
the city depends as much or more upon the charac- 
ter of her citizens as upon municipal regulations. 1 ' 
He thought that a bad people could not be made 
good by good laws nor a good people bad by bad 
laws ; other and more powerful causes operate to 
raise and to lower a people. He believed that laws 
to be effective must be representative of the people. 
And so, by precept and example he strove for the 
moral improvement of the citizens ; and no one 
could recall any time in his long term of office when 
he had said or done anything unbecoming the 
exalted position of chief magistrate. 

His influence with officials and people became 
very great, as was illustrated in the case of the 
latter, when a howling mob of several thousands, 
too numerous for the local police and military to 
cope with, that had assembled during the war to 
oppose the military draft, dispersed after a few 
words spoken by him, as he rode on horse-back 
among them. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MAYOR DURING THE REBELLION. 

HIS term as mayor extended through the war of 
the rebellion. If it were possible to separate 
democrats from republicans, it could probably be 
demonstrated that as many of the former as the 
latter participated in the war on the union side ; but 
it served political purposes to denounce all demo- 
crats as " copperheads " with rebel sympathies. A 
few civil officers of the government in subordinate 
positions were particularly offensive in their whole- 
sale denunciations, and even the Mayor with his 
well known antecedents, did not altogether escape 
their vituperations ; indeed, upon one occasion, 
refusing to act officially in accordance with the sug- 
gestions of a petty United States civil officer, he 
was grossly insulted by him, when weak and danger- 
ously sick in bed in his own home, where the sub- 
servient underling had meanly intruded. This officer 
was Falstaffian in all things but physical propor- 
tions, and probably enjoyed this manifestation of 

E 



LofC 



34 

undefined power. Such brutal illustrations of exu- 
berant patriotism were few, and with this exception, 
the Mayor was always treated with the respect that 
he demanded and to which he was entitled. 

Fortunately many of his public acts and utter- 
ances during this period are recorded. In his 
annual message to the Common Council on January 
3, i860, he said : " You are the representatives of a 
city with a national reputation for the superiority 
of its mechanical productions, and of the industrial 
metropolis of a state, proud of her revolutionary 
history, her steady devotion to the constitution, and 
the union, and of her individual loyalty to the 
rights of every other state. Whatever differences 
of opinion may arrise among us on questions of 
local policy, our memories of the past, and our 
hopes for the future must ever conspire to remind 
us, that next to that kind Providence who has ever 
watched over us, our speeches, our acts and affec- 
tions are due, in all sincerity, to the support of 
these principles, which respecting and upholding 
the rights of all, will forever preserve us, as one 
people, with one constitution, and one destiny." 

And again on January 7, 1862, he said : " Every 
stipulation of the constitution should be regarded 
as sacred by every citizen, until altered or abolished, 



35 

because it is the great organic law of our confeder- 
acy, the solemn covenant of patriot fathers, and the 
political ligature of the nation." 

" Whoever assails its authority, by word or 
deed, is an enemy of the Union of the States and 
the peace and happiness of his country. The gov- 
ernment organized under it, is within its prescribed 
limits sovereign just as the several states are sov- 
ereign, except so far as they have delegated power 
to the general government. Both are sovereign 
within their respective spheres. It is the duty of 
both, as well as of every citizen, to be governed by 
and obey the constitution and the laws, as they are 
expounded and adjudicated by the appointed trib- 
unals. Respect for and obedience to law is the 
highest political duty of every American citizen. 
If the law or the constitution require alteration, it 
is the people's prerogative to make it by the pre- 
scribed means." 

And again on January 6, 1863, he said : " In my 
opinion the provisions of the federal constitution 
do not recognize the right of any state to withdraw 
from the union at its pleasure ; nor had there arisen 
anything in the administration of the government 
to justify, in any mode, a separation of the states 
and the rupture of our national union, associated 



36 

with such precious memories, identified with our 
proudest and fondest hopes, and so essential to our 
prosperity at home, our respect and dignity abroad." 

The Mayor had opposed the election of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, but when the chief magistrate, enroute 
to Washington, passed through Newark, he was 
publicly received and escorted through the streets 
of the city by him ; Mr. Lincoln, the Mayor, and 
the ill-fated Colonel Ellsworth riding in the same 
carriage. This reception was cordial and dignified, 
and drew from Mr. Lincoln many expressions of 
praise ; and later in the war, then about to begin, 
he frequently referred to the ovation given to him 
in Newark, at the beginning of his term as the most 
cheering incident of his tiresome and dangerous 
journey to the capital. 

Afterwards the Mayor presided at the great 
union meeting at the court house and appointed 
the relief committee of which Governor Marcus L. 
Ward was the efficient chairman. He also used his 
influence to obtain such appropriations of funds by 
the common council as were deemed necessary to 
properly equip the departing soldiers, and to pro- 
vide for their families in their absence ; and under 
his supervision a large sum of money was paid to 
these families, at slight expense to the city. 



CHAPTER IX. 



HOME LIFE AND FAMILY. 



IT IS not becoming to dwell upon the home life 
of Mr. Bigelow. It is sufficient to say that he 
was a most kind and indulgent father and husband, 
loved and venerated by his family that he always 
maintained in great elegance. He had five sons and 
two daughters, Samuel Fowler Bigelow, now a law- 
yer of Newark, Moses Bigelow, a manufacturer, who 
succeeded to his father's business, and married his 
cousin Lila, daughter of Colonel Samuel Fowler, of 
Sussex County, Julia F. Bigelow, who died unmar- 
ried soon after attaining her majority, Henry Bige- 
low, who died in infancy, Frederic Bigelow, who 
married Harriet VanRensselaer Bleecker, and died in 
his twenty-seventh year, and Josephene Bigelow, 
who married John C. Kirtland. Three only of his 



38 

children survived him, and his death, which occurred 
January 10, 1874, was probably accelerated by his 
domestic bereavements. 

By his request without ostentation, his body 
was carried by his personal friends Beach Vander- 
pool, Joseph A. Halsey, Judge David A. Depue, 
Dr. J. Marshall Paul, Joseph N. Tuttle, David 
Campbell, Jabez P. Pennington, and Jeremiah C. 
Garthwaite to a tomb in Mount Pleasant Cemetery 
that he had already prepared, and placed in the 
same plot with the bodies of his father and mother 
and children ; and probably every one of the large 
concourse of mourners at his obsequies concurred 
in the sentiment expressed by Rev. Jonathan F. 
Stearns, who officiated on the occasion. " When 
he died a natural gentleman passed away." 



0061 6 AON 



